Students and exams under microscope

On Monday the first of the 150,000 students sitting Scholarship and NCEA will pick up their pens and begin the exams that will be the most scrutinised in years.

This is high-stakes time for the national qualification - a problem-free exam period will see public confidence in the system begin to be restored.

Memories are still fresh of the debacle over last year's Scholarship exams, which saw hundreds of top students fail to get scholarships.

Students, parents and teachers also remember problems with NCEA, including widely varying results, allegations of political bias in questions and timetable clashes.

As a result, any serious problems with this year's exams will further undermine the credibility of the qualifications.

But as students undertake last-minute swot, Qualifications Authority acting chief executive Karen Sewell says optimism is high that the exams will go smoothly.

"We have been absolutely determined to make sure we get it right for the students this year. That has been our focus. I'm confident that it will be consistent and fair for students."

Education Minister Steve Maharey is less emphatic about his confidence in the exams, but said NZQA had assured him it had everything in place. He said once the exam system was working well it would be possible to "fine-tune" NCEA to restore full confidence in the system.

Numerous reviews have analysed what went wrong and advice has been sought from the Government, expert panels, teachers and students

One of the biggest changes has been with Scholarship, where 3 per cent of the year 13 students studying a subject at NCEA level three will now be awarded a scholarship, provided they reach the standard, and a new marking process will rank students to find the top 3 per cent.

The variability in NCEA marks has also been addressed, with NZQA saying it will monitor results daily from the start of marking and will identify any that differ from what is expected.

Testing times

* Exams run from Monday, November 14, to Friday, December 10.
* 150,000 students are sitting the exams.
* Two million personalised exam papers have been prepared.
* The biggest exam is English level 1, which 50,000 students will sit.